UCSD student held five days unwittingly walked into ongoing drug investigation

Daniel Chong, shown at a May 1 news conference, is suing the U.S. for $20 million. K.C. Alfred • U-T

Daniel Chong didn’t know it, but when he went to his friend’s house to celebrate April 20, a sacred date in the pot-smoking crowd, he walked right into an active federal drug investigation.

The decision almost cost him his life.

U.S. drug agents detained Chong and seven others while executing a search warrant at a University City apartment, but left Chong unattended in a holding cell by mistake, and he barely survived the next five days without food or water.

The handcuffs that had been clamped around Chong’s wrists slipped off from weight loss and dehydration, his lawyer said. He had hallucinations that contributed to an awkward, unsuccessful suicide attempt.

After The Watchdog disclosed the incident April 30, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration took the unprecedented step of issuing a public apology to Chong.

Now, new court records obtained by The Watchdog detail exactly what happened in the days and hours leading up the DEA action, a jaw-dropping oversight that made international news.

According to affidavits filed in San Diego Superior Court, Chong’s friends had been under surveillance for weeks by the time he showed up Friday night, April 20, to party at the apartment complex. The date and time, 420, holds a special significance to pot smokers, though why is vague. Some say it relates to an occasion in Northern California years ago.

On Saturday morning, court records say, Vandevrn Bong was nervous. He had been arrested with “a large amount” of ecstasy on April 4 and a new shipment of the pills he sent from Oakland had not yet arrived in San Diego.

“I used a completely different return address and had someone else go in, you know what I’m saying?” the records say Bong told his friend, Jacky Liang. “I’m not sure if it’s your address or what.”

Unbeknown to the alleged dealers, drug agents intercepted the package at the Midway area post office early that morning. They were also listening to the suspects’ phone calls.

At 9:41 a.m., a DEA agent posing as a postal worker delivered thousands of pills to the apartment on Genesee Cove. Liang signed for the package.

Minutes later, Liang called prospective buyer Gabriel Jimenez to tell him that the “s*** is here.”

By 9:55 a.m., Liang was back on the phone with Bong, who was planning to fly down from Oakland with his girlfriend, Jenny Tse, a few hours later to complete the transaction.

Known as “Gucci, the G,” the batch of ecstasy was especially good, Bong told Liang.

Half an hour later, Kyle Guerin and Deidre Bettencourt left the apartment, walked through the parking lot and returned moments later. The agents observed the couple but did not intervene just then.

Jimenez arrived at Genesee Cove around 10:50 a.m. in a VW driven by Joshua Montagne. Montagne remained in the car, but agents stopped Jimenez and quickly placed him in custody.

At 10:55 a.m., agents “announced in a loud clear voice ‘Police with a search warrant demanding entry’ ” and went inside the apartment with a drug-sniffing dog.